The tech officer flinched as if my words had been a physical blow. His eyes, wide with terror, darted from my face to Arthur’s, then to the stern visage of General Thorne. Thorne simply nodded, a silent command that carried more weight than the Chief Justice's gavel ever could. The young man swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing, and turned back to his console.
"Accessing... encrypted data packet within the audio log's sub-channel," he announced, his voice trembling. "The packet is sealed with a military-grade alpha-level cipher. It... it will take time to..."
"It will take exactly twelve seconds," I stated flatly. The chamber fell silent again, all eyes on me. "Vice-Admiral Vance's personal authorization protocols have a built-in backdoor for emergency command overrides. A backdoor I desi
